Furuno FS-1575 FS-2575 FS-5075 User Manual

DSC is an acronym meaning Digital Selective Calling. It is a digital distress and gen-
eral calling system in the MF and HF bands used by ships for transmitting distress 
alerts and general calls and by coast stations for transmitting the associated acknowl-
edgements.

For DSC distress, safety and urgency callings in the MF and HF bands, the frequen-
cies are 2187.5, 4207.5, 6312.0, 8414.5, 12577.0, and 16804.5 kHz.

DSC calls are roughly divided in two groups: distress messages and general (safety, 
urgency and routine) messages. Below are the types of DSC messages.

*SPECIAL MSG: To send these messages, set [SPECIAL MSG] to [ABLE]. See 
section 6.18.

DISTRESS ALERT

Your ship sends distress message.

DISTRESS RELAY 
AREA

Your ship relays distress call to all ships in a specific geographical area.

DISTRESS RELAY 
INDIVIDUAL

Your ship relays distress call to a coast station.

MEDICAL MSG*

Inform areas that your ship is carrying medical supplies.

NEUTRAL MSG*

Inform areas that your ship is not a participant in armed conflict.

INDIVIDUAL MSG

Call to a specific address.

PSTN MSG

Call over Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

TEST MSG

Send test signal to a station to test your station's functionality.

GROUP MSG

Call to a specific group.

AREA MSG

Call to all ships in a specific geographical area.

POSITION MSG

Your ship requests position of other ships.

POLLING MSG

Confirm if your ship is within communicating range with other ships. (Re-
ceive and answer only)

Distress, Safety, Urgency DSC calls 

Routine DSC Call

Option

Routine DSC Call

TRANSCEIVER 

UNIT

CONTROL UNIT

Distress, Safety, Urgency and Routine DSC Calls